 A Hands-off Central Banker? Marriner S. Eccles and the Federal Reserve Policy, 1934-1951Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah from University of Utah, Department of Economics Abstract: Marriner Eccles is often seen as an early defender of Keynesian ideas. In that respect, it is generally accepted that he considered monetary policy of secondary importance, and that as a result he allowed the Federal Reserve to be submitted to the interests of the Treasury. In this view, the Federal Reserve after 1935 acquired new instruments to command monetary policy, but it did not change its behavior significantly. Further, his defense of the Federal Reserve-Treasury accord in 1951 is sometimes seen as a reversal of his previous policy stances. This paper claims that proper understanding of Eccles views is necessary to appreciate the changes in monetary policy during the Great Depression and World War II. Rather than a hands-off central banker, that submitted the Fed to the Treasury, a more proper depiction of Eccles tenure at the Fed would be as a Main Street chairman. Keywords: History of Thought; Keynesians; Federal Reserve History (search for similar items in EconPapers) Published in American Policy and Power, R. Leeson (Ed.) London: Macmillan. There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uta:papers:2006_04 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah from University of Utah, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC. |
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